Nam Yu (red fermented tofu) is one of my favorite ingredients to marinate meat. I’ve used it for deep fried chicken wings and pork slices, and thought I’d give it a try in a recipe that has East meeting West – Nam Yu pork chop.

The idea is simple, using the Western cooking method utilizing griddle and oven, but marinate the pork with nam yu. The result turned out rather well, with the pork acquiring that sweet and salty flavor of nam yu, while not having to use oil (as with deep frying) and be able to retain much of the natural juice in the meat.

nam yu pork chop, a griddle is preferred

Ingredients:

4 pieces of pork chop at 150-200 grams each (I prefer the cut with a layer of pork fat)

2-3 cubes of nam yu

2 cups of mushroom

1 bulb of garlic

lettuce for granish

Haze enjoying the nam yu pork chop, with some mushroom & lettuce

Cooking instructions:

using a pestle (or back of chopping knife), pound and flattened the pork to half it’s thickness. This is to make the pork more tender

spread the nam yu on pork and left marinate for at least an hour

heat up the griddle, and saute the pork until brown (2-3 minutes each side)

add mushroom and garlic to the griddle, and place in oven at 175 Celsius for 10 minutes

remove from oven and let the meat sit for 5 minutes before serving

The garlic and mushroom should be cooked in the oven with the fat coming off from the pork. The lettuce serves as a garnish as well as something refreshing between the bites. Give it a try!

Heh! Ya, that’s a good way to tenderize meat without using a dedicated steak hammer or meat tenderizers. I use a rolling pin coz I saw my homestay mom use it to tenderize meat when I was there. It works just as well as a hammer. 😀